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O Reviewer, Reviewer wherefore art thou!

I have the ears of many up and coming game designers and publishers. I’m constantly asked about board game reviewers and who accepts what. So I thought I’d create a list of game reviewers for all to reference. This survey was created to capture that data. Hopefully, it’ll help you find the games you want to review and cut down on a number of unwanted solicitations you may get.

The last column of the table tells you if they will pre/review Kickstarter products and if they charge for that service. More importantly, even if they say they will do your KS review, most all of reviewers will not do it with less than a couple weeks notice (and esp. won’t do it if your campaign is live). Almost all reviewers will review a game for a cost of keeping that game. Most will not review print and play games unless that’s its final format.

If you would like to get on this card & board game reviewer list, please send me all the info through the contact link at the top of this page.

UPDATE: This list’s data is constantly being updated as I get more data. If you find errors please tell me.

NOTE: This listing below has a horizontal scroll at the bottom with more data (there are 9 columns). It may not work correctly on a mobile device. The columns are: NAME, CONTACT, WEBSITE, FOLLOWER COUNT, MEDIUM, CATEGORIES, COUNTRY, LANGUAGE, KICKSTARTER REVIEWS?

You can sort the data by clicking the up/down arrows and search the data with this search box:

I submitted a new response to your survey as my information and readership has changed substantially over the past month. Feel free to remove my previous response from the list (BobTHJ). Thanks so much for maintaining this list!

James, We just added our podcast to your list, but I wanted to let you know that many in community speak very highly of you and your efforts. Thank you for compiling this list and your efforts on behalf of the reviewer community generally.

I have filled out the survey and would greatly appreciate being added to the pdf when you have the time. In addition, as an aspiring designer as well as a reviewer, I look forward to making use of this list when the day arrives that I need it from the other end. Thank you for creating this amazing resource and supporting the gaming community in general!

James, I’m not sure I’m in the right category for readers. I am flattered, but I’m not sure there are more than seven or eight people who read Drake’s Flames on a regular basis. And they’re almost all misanthropes.

I have been going through the list and I found a few of things that you might want to know to update it. I hope it helps 🙂

The Spiel (http://thespiel.net) the list says that they sometimes review KS, but this in their website:
“Please Note: We do not cover/review unreleased Kickstarter games. We limit our coverage to games that are currently available. If you are looking for publicity for a Kickstarter campaign, check out our sponsorship ad opportunities.”

There is a typo in Crits Happen’s website, which means that if you copy and past it, it fails. www,critshappen.com As you can see between the www and the address there is a , instead of a .

Undead Viking has 11.073 followers in youtube, but he is now in the 2,000-5,000 range.

Thanks for making this list! I’d love to see it as a Google doc or something that can be downloaded.

Also, to make sure, the ‘No’ means that they won’t review *Kickstarters,* right? But they might review a prototype before a Kickstarter is even announced? Our plan is to make a PnP but wait until we have a number of downloads before launching.

Wonderful, James. Thanks for this list on behalf of everyone ever. : )
Question: What percentage of the “Yes, free” folks do you think ask for a free copy of the game post funding, even though they say “free”? Thanks again.

Great list! What would be valuable for me would be an extra field that says whether the reviewer accepts print&play files or not. And possibly what type of games they mainly play or don’t want to play. But I recall that a list like that exists somewhere, though not as extensive.

99% of them will not. Think about it. Not only are you asking them to make you a video but now you’re asking them to spend time AND MONEY to build a prototype? That’s rare and not going to happen. Frankly you shouldn’t even ask as it’s just rude.

I am reaching out to a few reviewers for my name game and I think this list requires some updates. For example: Tantrum house does paid reviews as well. Do I send you the updates for you to update this list?

When you say “adult” do you mean no games only appropriate for adults, like Cards Against Humanity? What about games that just have high violence and/or complexity that render not suitable for younger kids? When I think “adult game” I think of those sexy dice rolling kinds of games. Thanks again, you rock dude!

Hi there James,
I’m one of the podcasters at Mariachi Meeple; thanks for adding us. If you are adding Spanish-written blogs, La Matatena would be a great addition. Over 2,500 daily visitors, and over 4,000 followers in social networks.http://la-matatena.com